The best approaches to using cloud storage create a seamless integration between on-premises and cloud storage. Integration of a cloud tier with on-premises storage can be accomplished in a number of ways. Some will prefer purpose-built software while others will use the capabilities built into storage systems or hardware gateway products.

Over the years, cloud backup has gotten more sophisticated and today it's easier than ever to integrate cloud backup with current traditional backup methods. Other new cloud backup applications include the ability to spread backups across multiple clouds and back up data that's created in the cloud.

Our Purchasing Intentions survey is one of the longest-running and most-comprehensive surveys of storage managers. It chronicles the technologies they're implementing or evaluating, and other initiatives and issues they expect to devote time and money to in the coming year.

One of the distinguishing features of object storage systems is their ability to package more metadata with each object they store. That metadata could be used to restrict access, define a file's lifecycle and its ultimate disposition. Other storage products are emerging that can do the same or similar type of data classification. This allows data management tasks to be automated via policies set by IT, thus creating smarter storage systems.

Enterprise file sync-and-share use has taken off in many organizations, but consumer file sync-and-share use can leave corporate data unprotected. In-house EFSS can help guard against data loss by giving IT oversight and control.

Today, organizations face a wide array of storage challenges. Luckily, there are myriad training and certification opportunities for IT pros looking to bolster their knowledge of the storage technologies.

As with any product still in its infancy, an exact definition for virtual machine-aware storage can be difficult to nail down. In simple terms, VM-aware storage is an appliance that vendors build specifically with virtual machines in mind in order to cut back on some of the most pertinent issues in virtual environments: complexity, difficult management and lagging performance.

Using VM-aware storage typically means there's no need to configure logical unit numbers and volumes, and because VMs are directly associated with the storage they reside on, priority can be given to more demanding apps and VMs can be granularly managed. This guide will walk you through what products classify as VM-aware storage, how they are implemented in virtual environments and what benefits they can bring to storage and virtualization administrators so you can make an informed decision about whether they're the right choice.